UPROXX Live Q&A With ‘Comedy Bang Bang’ Host Scott Aukerman

Today we’re pleased to welcome back Scott Aukerman (AKA The Choctaw AKA Hot Saucerman) of the Comedy Bang! Bang! TV show and podcast. He was here a year ago when the TV show was just getting started. Now both he and his awesome show are back. The second season of Comedy Bang! Bang! airs Friday nights on IFC at 10:00 / 9:00 Central.

Aside from the TV show, you may also enjoy Aukerman’s Comedy Bang Bang: The Podcast on the Earwolf podcast network, which he co-founded. If you’ve never heard the podcast, you are streets behind. (If you’re looking for a place to start, recent Episode 229 was especially fantastic.) Aukerman was also a writer on Mr. Show with Bob and David and is the director/producer of the hilarious Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. In other words, he’s been involved in roughly half of the stuff we love.

Today’s discussion is scheduled to begin at 2pm EST and will go for about an hour. Please begin your questions with “@Scott” to keep things organized. If you wrote your question on a Fruit Roll-Up™ and then accidentally ate it, that is a classic UPROXX open thread blunder — we’ll have to deduct points for that. You should have asked those questions here. We’re opening the floor to questions now, so feel free to get them in early. Click on “See All Responses” or Aukerman’s name in the right side module to easily access all of his answers.

You know, i don’t really know about any other state’s improv stuff – i was having a convo with Paul Brittain about the various types of chicago improv – but I would encourage you to START and find a bunch of people you like working with. If that means moving, great (you’ll eventually have to move if you’re serious about it, so maybe the sooner the better?). But just start it up, if that seems too big of a task for you right now.

Just saw Jerry the other night! I’d like to have him on… the deal with Cyber Thug is, he used to take over when I couldn’t be there on Fridays at noon (when we used to be live on the radio). Now that I can record any time, the need for a guest host isn’t all that great.

I knew him when I first started doing comedy – in 1995. We would pal around a lot – like hang out at his apartment and watch weird videos. We didn’t really work together on Mr. Show, except when he would perform on it. He had moved on as a writer for the fourth season.

@scott Hi Hot Soccermom! I tried asking this during your AMA but didn’t get it in in time. Your role in CBB has always reminded me a bit of dungeon mastering in D&D: did you ever go through a D&D period? Have any other games (even performance/imrpov games) really shaped the way you work the controls in a-the Bang-y Bang? Thanks for doing this!

I really WANTED to do D&D, but my parents wouldn’t let me – unfortunately I grew up in the era where it was considered satanic, and a gateway into Hell. I kind of lucked into finding an improv style I got good at – interview style improv (a unique form not practiced really anywhere else).

@scott you talked about there being a some sort of seasonal arc for season 2, but I haven’t seen anything that connected the first two episodes together. Were you just HAVING A LAUGH?!?!?!?!? Or will the arc be more apparent in later episodes?

Paul F and I want to do one where he does a character for a half hour, then we switch and I do one -but it’s been hard for me to focus on. We did a Dead Authors podcast where I played a character to his interviewer – that was fun.

To work on – probably the one with Monster Mash? I loved co-writing that script, and shooting in the graveyard was fun, with all of us dressed up like monsters. Magic Window needs to come back! He doesn’t in season two. Hopefully in three!

You’ve become much more lax about talking during the theme song, and in fact tend to cut it off yourself. Your repulsion by long, drawn-out plugs themes is also both evident and commendable. Do you hate Phish because nearly every single one of their songs goes on for well over the 15 second point at which you stop enjoying music?

Yes, fifteen seconds is the optimum time that a human can enjoy music. Anything longer is just a clattering of dischordant sounds. We finally got our tweets down to 140 characters, after decades of tweets being 150 characters, so why can’t we get our songs down to 15 seconds?

@Scott: What do you prefer as a guest for the podcast: A great comedian who might not necessarily grasp the concept of the show or someone who isn’t as well known but works well within the system for the show?

I like it when it’s easiest to record the best… but I know that big names will attract new listeners. The best is when it’s someone who is easy going and able to play along. Bobby Moynihan comes to mind… Seth Rogen would have been great playing off a character, but in both the case of his and Marc Maron’s recent episodes, the character guests texted me right as the show started that they weren’t showing up!

I like the people who enjoy being pinned, and then enjoy getting out of it… Andy Daly, PFT, and Horatio Sanz all seem to enjoy it in a fun way. I laugh like an idiot when Horatio says something like, “Okay, that may be true, but what i MEANT was…”

I thought I was going to just be a writer, after the Mr. Show years where the projects I developed for myself didn’t happen. So it’s really nice to have this gift late in my career. But writing is more lucrative than performing, I think, especially since you can have a really long career doing it. So I almost DID make that choice, in other words, but luckily didn’t have to.

Is Scott Aukerman the person similar to ANY of the personalities you are/play/act in your work?

I don’t know if it’s just me, but for me, but the irony trope is everywhere and it’s pretty amazing
I love Analyze Phish haha so I paid attention to when you said that you don’t really do drugs or psychedelics that much, let alone smoke weed. Hahaha! That I find hilarious because like someone said a few comments down, your podcast and especially the TV show STRONGLY resemble a psychedelic trip. Hahaha.. this must be intentional
Keep on being awesome!

Thank you! Maybe Analyze Phish is kind of close to me – except I’m kind of looking for chances to be a jerk about stuff in that. I’m more of a laid back dude in real life. I think the fact that people think the TV show is enhanced by psychedelics is funny, since most of the writers don’t really participate in that. But that was just like Mr. Show – we were constantly asked about how high we were when we wrote the stuff, and we never were! Writing comedy is hard business.

I was bummed when Andy Daly was so busy with his TV show and could never come by. Nick Kroll is now super busy with his two TV shows. I wish I could do a more “regular” lineup sometimes, doing shows with the regulars every week, but the variety is great as well, and has led to some new faves like Lauren Lapkus, Joe Wengert, Eugene Cordero, Neil Campbell & Paul Rust!

We actually learned a lot about how people were viewing the show, and what they seemed most interested in. We learned that a third guest wasn’t necessary – even though they would be amazing, it was too much for audiences to process.

I listen to Batdance at least thrice daily, but I’ve been alternating recently with “Fitter Happier.” And the “Inside Amy Schumer” theme song.

That wasn’t really a podcast – it was more what we do in our respective standups. So I did a bit that I opened the tour with last year – which I wouldn’t want to release as a podcast. The standup Thomas Lennon did I’m sure he would want to save for an album or the like. Which would leave us with some other stuff that wouldn’t really fit in a podcast, so we decided to have it live as a live event!

I love Lie Detector… and actually, any of the sketches i saw the first time I ever saw Bob and David live! I would get so excited when I would see them pop up in live tapings -sometimes as late as in the second season.